Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: August 3, 2018
Kaiser Health News: Doctors Reckon With High Rate Of Suicide In Their Ranks
Alarms go off so frequently in emergency rooms, doctors barely notice. And then a colleague is wheeled in on a gurney, clinging to life, and that alarm becomes a deafening wake-up call. “It’s devastating,” said Dr. Kip Wenger, recalling a 33-year-old physician and friend who died by suicide in 2015. “This is a young, healthy person who has everything in the world ahead of them.” (Farmer, 8/3)
Kaiser Health News: Watch: What You Should Know About The New Rule On Short-Term Health Plans
Kaiser Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby explains on “PBS NewsHour” how the Trump administration’s approach to short-terms plans could make this form of health coverage more widely available. But the plans also could cause premium increases for those consumers who opt for more comprehensive insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. (8/2)
California Healthline: Stanford’s Chief Wellness Officer Aims To Prevent Physician Burnout
Stanford Medicine hired Dr. Tait Shanafelt as chief wellness officer last year, not so much for the well-being of the patients — but of the physicians. An oncologist and hematologist by training, Shanafelt, 46, has become a national leader in the movement to end physician “burnout” — the cumulative effect of years of stress that can compromise patient care and cause doctors to leave medicine. After 12 years at the Mayo Clinic, Shanafelt now heads up Stanford’s WellMD Center, dedicated to physician health. He also serves as an associate dean of the Stanford University medical school. (Ostrov, 8/3)
The Associated Press: Dems Will Try Forcing Senate Vote Against Trump Health Plan
Democrats will try forcing a campaign-season vote on blocking a Trump administration rule letting insurers sell short-term plans that are cheaper but skimpier than allowed under the Obama health care law, party leaders said Thursday. Though the effort has a chance of passing the narrowly divided Senate, it is certain to die in the Republican-controlled House and would never be signed by President Donald Trump. (Fram, 8/2)
The Hill: Senate Dems To Force Vote To Block Non-ObamaCare Insurance Plans
The resolution of disapproval will be introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). During a call with reporters Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he thinks there will be unanimous support among Democrats once the resolution is introduced. The measure will only require 51 votes to pass, which would mean that in Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) absence the backers need to recruit one Republican to their cause. “All it takes is one or two Republicans who claim to support preexisting condition protections,” Schumer said. (Weixel, 8/2)
Reuters: Four U.S. Cities Sue Over Trump 'Sabotage' Of Obamacare
Four major U.S. cities filed a lawsuit on Thursday contending that President Donald Trump's administration is unconstitutionally seeking to undermine Obamacare by failing to faithfully execute the healthcare law. The complaint in federal court in Baltimore, filed by the cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, alleged that the Republican president is "waging a relentless campaign to sabotage and, ultimately, to nullify the law." (Raymond, 8/2)
The Washington Post: Senate Blocks Effort To Kill D.C.’s Version Of Affordable Care Act’s Individual Mandate
Score one for D.C. The Senate rejected Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to block the District from requiring that most residents have health insurance, thwarting — for now — Republican efforts to rein in the city’s government. Senators from both parties on Wednesday effectively killed a measure sponsored by Cruz (R-Tex.) that would have eliminated the District’s version of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act. (Portnoy, 8/2)
The Associated Press: HHS Names Family Planning Grantees Amid Battle Over Program
The Department of Health and Human Services says 96 organizations will get funding under the federal family planning program this year. Twelve will be new. They include community health centers, state agencies and Planned Parenthood affiliates. (8/2)
The Hill: Planned Parenthood Hangs Onto Federal Grants Despite GOP Objections
The Trump administration will continue funding Planned Parenthood through a national family planning program, despite arguments from Republicans that it should be excluded from the grants. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday the 96 organizations across the U.S. that would receive Title X family planning grants, including 13 Planned Parenthood affiliates. (Hellmann, 8/2)
Reuters: U.S. Urges End To Lawsuits Over 'Abstinence-Only' For Pregnant Teens
The U.S. government is urging federal judges to dismiss two lawsuits by Planned Parenthood affiliates over its efforts to impose what they called an "abstinence-only-until-marriage" focus in its Teen Pregnancy Protection Program. In court filings this week, government lawyers representing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Planned Parenthood lacked standing to sue because it chose not to apply for grants from the program. (Stempel, 8/2)
Politico: How Drug Companies Are Beating Trump At His Own Game
A July tweet from President Donald Trump sent panic through the C-suites of some of the world’s biggest drug companies, prompting Pfizer and nine other companies to roll back or freeze prices. But there’s less to those announcements than meets the eye. The gestures turned out to be largely symbolic — efforts to beat Trump at his own game by giving him headlines he wants without making substantive changes in how they do business. The token concessions are “a calculated risk,” said one drug lobbyist. “Take these nothing-burger steps and give the administration things they can take credit for.” (Karlin-Smith, Owermohle and Restuccia, 8/3)
The Associated Press: Nevada GOP Senator's Health Care Views Heat Up Tough Race
Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller's sliding positions last year on a long-held GOP promise to repeal Obamacare are providing plenty of fodder for Democrats and activists hoping to stymie his re-election. Heller, considered the most vulnerable incumbent GOP senator, opposed measures to dismantle former President Barack Obama's health care law before backing other versions that failed. The shifting stances drew attacks from the left and the right, and Democrats are not letting him forget it. (8/2)
The Associated Press: US, ACLU Divide On How To Reunify Separated Families
The Trump administration and the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday revealed widely divergent plans on how to reunite hundreds of immigrant children with parents who have been deported since the families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump’s administration puts the onus on the ACLU, asking that the organization use its “considerable resources” to find parents in their home countries, predominantly Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing that the State Department has begun talks with foreign governments on how the administration may be able to aid the effort. (Spagat, 8/3)
Politico: Trump Administration Tells ACLU To Find Deported Parents
“Plaintiffs’ counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that defendants have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries,” DOJ said. The administration suggested that the ACLU find out whether the deported parents wish to be reconnected with their children, or whether they waive that option. (Hesson, 8/2)
San Diego Union-Times: U.S. Government Wants ACLU To Find Missing Immigrant Parents
The ACLU pushed back in its part of the filing, asking the judge in the class-action lawsuit to order the government to keep working on its own to locate parents and to provide more information to the civil rights organization so that it can assist in the reunification. “The government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents,” the ACLU wrote in the filing. “Not only was it the government’s unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States government has far more resources than any group of NGOs,” or nongovernmental organizations. (Morrissey, 8/2)
The Hill: Worker Charged With Sexually Abusing Eight Migrant Children At Detention Facility
Pacheco had worked at Southwest Key’s Casa Kokopelli shelter in Mesa, Ariz., since 2016. The shelter was cited by the Arizona Department of Health Services in 2017 for not completing background checks on employees, according to the site. (Thomsen, 8/2)
The New York Times: F.D.A. Did Not Intervene To Curb Risky Fentanyl Prescriptions
A fast-acting class of fentanyl drugs approved only for cancer patients with high opioid tolerance has been prescribed frequently to patients with back pain and migraines, putting them at high risk of accidental overdose and death, according to documents collected by the Food and Drug Administration. The F.D.A. established a distribution oversight program in 2011 to curb inappropriate use of the dangerous medications, but entrusted enforcement to a group of pharmaceutical companies that make and sell the drugs. (Baumgaertner, 8/2)
Stat: Under Pressure, Cardinal Health Agrees To Boost Opioid Distribution Oversight
For the second time this year, a major pharmaceutical wholesaler has reached agreement with a coalition of institutional investors to bolster oversight of opioid distribution and board accountability. In this instance, the Cardinal Health (CAH) board agreed to create a committee to monitor the risks of distributing the addictive painkillers and provide investors with reports of two investigations into allegations of failed oversight. In addition, the wholesaler agreed to post detailed information about its policies and efforts on its website. (Silverman, 8/2)
Stat: Poison Control Calls Spike For Unapproved Drug With Opioid-Like High
Calls to U.S. poison control centers about an unapproved antidepressant that has opioid-like effects have climbed dramatically since 2015, according to a new analysis published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tianeptine is used as an antidepressant in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. It hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But it’s easy to buy the drug online as a diet supplement or research chemical and is sometimes abused, because it can give users an opioid-like high. (Thielking, 8/2)
The Associated Press: With Scant Record, Supreme Court Nominee Elusive On Abortion
Twice in the past year, Brett Kavanaugh offered glimpses of his position on abortion that strongly suggest he would vote to support restrictions if confirmed to the Supreme Court. One was in a dissent in the case of a 17-year-old migrant seeking to terminate her pregnancy. The other was a speech before a conservative group in which he spoke admiringly of Justice William Rehnquist's dissent in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that established a woman's right to abortion. (Lavoie and Tarm, 8/3)
The New York Times: Lack Of Dental Coverage Hampers Medicaid Recipients, Suit Says
Frank Ciaramella has not been in a family photo in years, and he also cannot remember the last time he had good veal scaloppine. Without any teeth, Mr. Ciaramella, a Staten Island resident, faces a host of challenges, but he said his most pressing concern is his inability to chew food. As a result, he said he cannot follow a prescribed diet related to his end-stage renal disease, and he’s at risk of being too overweight for a much-needed kidney transplant. (Pager, 8/2)
Stat: Scientists Find New Clue To How Thalidomide Caused Devastating Birth Defects
Scientists have found a new piece of the puzzle about how the drug thalidomide caused devastating birth defects in thousands of children whose mothers took the drug while pregnant more than 60 years ago. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers reported this week in eLife that the drug triggers the degradation of a slew of transcription factors — proteins that help flip genes on or off — including one called SALL4. That doesn’t come as a total surprise: SALL4 has long been seen as a likely suspect in the chain of events that led to the birth defects because mutations in the SALL4 gene can cause developmental problems in patients with a disease called Duane-radial ray syndrome. The condition can lead to underdeveloped limbs, eye and ear defects, and heart issues — the hallmark signs of exposure to thalidomide in the womb. (Thielking, 8/3)
Stat: Ebola Outbreak In DRC Sets Up Another Test For Experimental Treatments
In the world of Ebola outbreaks, lucky breaks are few and far between. But it appears the Democratic Republic of the Congo may have caught a small one in its latest go-round with the dangerous disease. And it might also give the world another shot at testing an experimental Ebola vaccine. Officials in the DRC said Thursday that testing has shown that the virus causing disease in North Kivu province in the northeast of the country is Ebola Zaire. That is the virus targeted by Merck’s experimental vaccine, which was tested during the West African outbreak in 2014 and 2015, and used in eastern DRC in an outbreak earlier this year. (Branswell, 8/3)
Reuters: Cashing In On DNA: Race On To Unlock Value In Genetic Data
How much is your DNA worth? As millions of people pay for home tests to check on ancestry or health risks, genetic data is becoming an increasingly valuable resource for drugmakers, triggering a race to create a DNA marketplace. GlaxoSmithKline's decision to invest $300 million in 23andMe and forge an exclusive drug development deal with the Silicon Valley consumer genetics company crystallizes the value locked up in genetic code. (Hirschler, 8/3)
The New York Times: Health Officials Prepare To Track Electric Scooter Injuries
A hospital conference room is an unlikely place to assess a budding transportation revolution, but a team of San Francisco trauma specialists and researchers who gathered there sees its work as essential to ensuring the safety of residents in a city of high-tech guinea pigs. “We don’t know what we don’t know,” Dr. Catherine Juillard, a trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, said during the meeting in late June. (Berman, 8/2)
The Washington Post: Tanner Collins Had One-Sixth Of His Brain Removed To Extract A Tumor And Stop His Seizures
It was a solution no parent wants to hear: To get rid of a brain tumor and stop their young son's seizures, surgeons would need to cut out one-sixth of his brain. But for Tanner Collins, it was the best option. A slow-growing tumor was causing sometimes-daily seizures, and medications commonly used to treat them did not seem to be working, his father said. But removing a portion of his brain was no doubt risky. (Bever, 8/2)
The New York Times: Cellphones And Crosswalks: A Hazardous Mix
Pedestrians who are using their phones cross the street at a slower pace than others, a new study has found, a behavior that may increase their risk of being hit by a car. Regardless of whether they’re talking on the phone or texting, distracted pedestrians using phones take smaller steps and walk in a more erratic fashion when crossing the street than those who aren’t on their phones, the study found. (Rabin, 8/2)
NPR: A Leader Makes Decisions For Self And Others The Same Way, Research Suggests
Leaders can have many different styles — just compare President Donald Trump to Malala Yousafzai to your boss or the coach of your kid's soccer team. But a study published Thursday suggests that people who end up in leadership roles of various sorts all share one key trait: Leaders make decisions for a group in the same way that they make decisions for themselves. They don't change their decision-making behavior, even when other people's welfare is at stake. (Greenfieldboyce, 8/2)
The Associated Press: Lawsuit Says Woman Had C-Section Without Anesthesia
A woman suing a Southern California hospital says she underwent a cesarean section without anesthesia. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune , the lawsuit filed last month claims an anesthesiologist didn’t immediately answer pages at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside last November, so the emergency operation was performed without him. (8/2)
San Diego Union-Times: Mom-To-Be Was Given C-Section Without Anesthesia, According To Lawsuit
Paul Iheanachor said he was in the hallway outside the operating room where hospital staff had taken his fiancee, Delfina Mota, when he knew something was wrong. “I heard the screams, the horrific screams,” 35-year-old Iheanachor said Thursday. “That’s when I realized they were cutting her without anesthesia.” Details of what the Oceanside couple said happened during the Nov. 16 birth are included in a lawsuit they filed last month naming Tri-City Medical Center, the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. (Figueroa, 8/2)
Los Angeles Times: Hurricane Maria Claimed 1,139 Lives In Puerto Rico As Its Effects Lingered For Months, Report Says
It’s been almost a year since Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, battering the U.S. territory with heavy rain, flash floods and winds that blew up to 155 mph. Officially, the death toll stands at 64. But a new report estimates that 1,139 people lost their lives as a result of the Category 4 storm. The figure, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., is based on mortality data from Puerto Rico’s vital statistics system that was not previously available. (Kaplan, 8/2)
The Wall Street Journal: New York City Health Czar Stepping Down To Take Harvard University Post
New York City health commissioner Mary Travis Bassett announced Thursday that she will be leaving her job at the end of the month to take a position at Harvard University. Dr. Bassett, who was appointed to lead the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partly for her focus on community health and disenfranchised neighborhoods, has in recent weeks faced criticism for what responsibility her department might have had in a lead-poisoning scandal that affects children living in the city’s public housing system. (West, 8/2)
The Associated Press: Illinois Governor OKs Allowing Medical Cannabis At Schools
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a law requiring public schools to allow parents to administer medical marijuana at school to eligible children. The Republican signed the legislation Wednesday. The new law allows parents or guardians to administer a “cannabis-infused product” to a student on school property or on a school bus if both parent and child have been cleared to use the product by the state’s medical marijuana law. (8/2)
Los Angeles Times: Driven From An Anaheim Tent City, A Couple Struggles With Addiction And The Realities Of Orange County’s Homeless
Laura Kasten stood outside her mother’s house in Fullerton, a backpack pulling on her hunched shoulders. She fidgeted. The 51-year-old and her mom, Jan Rockwell, hadn’t spoken since arguing just before Christmas. Laura braced herself. “I’ve got your mail right on the table,” Rockwell, 79, said as they squeezed onto a faded living room couch. “I’d like to hug you if I can hold my nose.” (Do, 8/2)
The Associated Press: Reports: Oregon Has Pot Oversupply, Colorado Hits The Mark
Two of the first states to broadly legalize marijuana took different approaches to regulation that left Oregon with a vast oversupply and Colorado with a well-balanced market. But in both states prices for bud have plummeted. A new Oregon report by law enforcement found nearly 70 percent of the legal recreational marijuana grown goes unsold, while an unrelated state-commissioned Colorado study found most growers there are planting less than half of their legal allotment — and still meeting demand. (8/2)
The Wall Street Journal: Cuomo Takes Step Toward Legalizing Recreational Marijuana In New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo took another step toward legalizing marijuana in New York, announcing the formation of a 20-person work group to draft legislation allowing for recreational use by adults. Thursday’s announcement came on the heels of a state health-department study that addressed the effects of pot legalization on public health, the economy and the criminal-justice system. The final report, released last month, concluded that the positive effects of a regulated marijuana market would outweigh the potential negatives. (Korte, 8/2)
